PESHAWAR, March 9: Former NWFP minister Malik Naqeebullah Khan has filed an appeal before the election appellate tribunal challenging rejection of his nomination papers by the returning officer for NA-26 Bannu by-elections.

The appellant said that the returning officer rejected his nomination papers without giving him opportunity of being heard.

Returning Officer Asghar Shah Khilji had rejected the papers on March 3, on the grounds that the intermediate certificate of the appellant issued to him by the Lahore Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education was forged.

The appellate tribunal comprising Justice Ijaz Afzal Khan and Justice Raj Mohammad Khan has been constituted under the Representation of Peoples Act. The tribunal will take up for hearing the appeal on March 12.